Film

Featured Photographer: Tibor Budai.

Film, Guest Post, Inspiration

Tibor Budai

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“What I want is to capture the natural, something quirky, insignificant or ordinary in the eyes of everyone, but something that eventually becomes emotional or surreal once transcribed to a photo.”

—Tibor Budai.–

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Tibor Budai

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About.

35 yrs old, originally from Budapest, Hungary.  Moved to Switzerland as a child, where he currently resides.  Works for Philip Morris.

Cameras and lenses.

“A Leica M7 with my 35mm Zeiss Biogon. I also have a Nikon FM2 as a backup solution in case my main camera breaks down!”

What’s important.

“We only live once, but if you play it right it is enough. ”

Interesting fact.

“I was in the army in Switzerland, and security was at a maximum during the 9/11 era.  Part of my duties included patrolling the US embassy and many others in the capital of Bern. Nowadays, I much prefer to patrol the streets with a camera hanging around my neck rather than a machine gun.”

 

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Today I am very pleased to present the work of Tibor Budai, whose photography I’ve enjoyed for several years.

Mr. Budai has an uncanny ability to “see”, and a gift for pressing the camera shutter at precisely the most interesting/poignant moment.

His seemingly quirky compositions belie a masterful photographer at work, whose intelligence is both playful and incisive.  Moreover, he accomplishes all of this within the challenging medium of film.

Simply put, Tibor is one of the purest photographers I know, and I admire his talents tremendously.
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—Peter.
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Q&A with Tibor.

What motivated (and still motivates) you to pick up a camera?

“The motivation for me is to record an instant which will disappear forever as quickly as it has appeared, just a moment ago.  It’s my life’s passion I think, discovered late, but as we say: “better late then never!” I just love taking pictures with the imagination process that begins soon after having taken it and this same process continuing on until the film development, with the gradual excitement going with it. And I simply like to look and appreciate the result of the successful photos after all the effort made. ”

 

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What do your images “say” about you?

“We say that pictures reflect one’s personality. Perhaps this is true. What I want is to capture the natural, something quirky, insignificant or ordinary in the eyes of everyone, but something that eventually becomes emotional or surreal once transcribed to a photo.  To say the least, this is not an obvious thing to do!“

 

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How have you evolved as a photographer/artist over the years?

“[I’ve evolved] a lot if I look back when I started 3-4 years ago.  I’ve learned from others’ work in forums or social media, and turning the pages of grand master’s photo books countless times, over and over again .”

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Any further comments about your work you’d like to share?

“I started doing mostly street photography. But now I tend to run some personal projects. I think change can bring benefits especially when one feels that particular subjects may have been overdone. It also allows me to come back to previous subjects, but with a different refreshed perspective. ”

 

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Images courtesy of Tibor Budai.

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Tibor-1

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Tibor-2

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Tibor-3

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Tibor-4

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Tibor-5

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Tibor-6

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Tibor-7

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Tibor-8

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Tibor-9

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Tibor-10

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Tibor-11

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Tibor-12

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Tibor-13

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Tibor-14

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Once again, I wish to convey my gratitude to Tibor for participating in this series.

If you’d like to see more of his work, please visit Tibor’s website here.

—Peter.

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Past Featured Photographers on Prosophos.com include:

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And the winner is…

Film, Inspiration, Q&A

I am pleased to announce that Kevin Ng is the winner of the Prosophos Film Contest.

Mr. Ng created this beautiful image using a Mamiya 645AFD II loaded with Tri-X 400 120 film:

Prosophos Film Contest 3

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Kevin, I can post mail you the 50 rolls of Tri-X 400, or I can deliver them in person (Toronto) with a cup of coffee :), as promised.

Congratulations!

A sincere thank you to everybody who participated, and congratulations again to the Top 10 Finalists.

—Peter.

Prosophos Film Contest: 10 Finalists.

Film, Inspiration

Just over a month ago, I announced my little Film Contest.

Many beautiful and diverse images were submitted, and for the last couple of days I’ve been reviewing them.

As you may recall, I asked each contestant to show me, in a single image, why he/she loves the medium of film.  Almost all of the entrants fulfilled that request, but — alas! — I can only choose one winner for the 50 rolls of Tri-X 400.

Before I do that, however, I wanted to honour the 10 Finalists by displaying their images below:

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#1

Prosophos Film Contest 1

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#2

Prosophos Film Contest 2

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#3

Prosophos Film Contest 3

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#4

Prosophos Film Contest 4

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#5

Prosophos Film Contest 5

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#6

Prosophos Film Contest 6

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#7

Prosophos Film Contest 7

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#8

Prosophos Film Contest 8

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#9

Prosophos Film Contest 9

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#10

–Prosophos Film Contest 10

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Please join me in thanking the talented photographers who created these 10 images.

The winner will be announced at some point this weekend.

I also would like to sincerely thank all of the individuals who participated in the contest.

—Peter.

Guest Post: Afghan Family Life in the 1960s.

Film, Guest Post, Inspiration

Earlier this week, Gullalai Salimi forwarded these photographs to me.  They were taken by her late father, back when Gullalai was a child growing up in Afghanistan.  Afghan society was more tolerant in the 1960s, and so the country she knew 50 years ago bears little resemblance to the modern-day incarnation.

With her permission, I digitally scanned Gullalai‘s original film photographs and decided to post the images here because I thought they may be of general interest to the viewership of this site.

—Peter.

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Afghanistan 1

Afghanistan 2

Afghanistan 3

Nostalgic.

2013, Favourite, Film, Inspiration, Leica 50mm Summilux ASPH f/1.4, Leica M3, Portrait, Teaching point

Nostalgic

↑Leica M3, Kodak Portra 400 NC, and Leica 50mm Summilux ASPH @ f/1.4.

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Film is back!

At least, on Prosophos.com.

Inspired by former-student-turned-film-processing-Master, Mark Ewanchuk (he’s even developing colour film at home — check out Mark’s guide for developing colour film).

Having said that, several “errors” were committed in the making of this image:

  • Expired colour film (Kodak Portra 400 NC) was used.
  • It was processed with my process for developing B&W film.
  • All the chemicals used were also well past their expiration dates.

Still, you can’t help but be amazed at how forgiving, and beautiful, film can be.

A lovely photographic medium for the lovely people in your life.

—Peter.